


The Wild Hunt

by panickyintheuk



Category: The Girl with All the Gifts (2016), The Girl with All the Gifts - M. R. Carey
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Harm to Animals, Hunters & Hunting, Imprisonment, hunger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-20 15:42:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17025459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panickyintheuk/pseuds/panickyintheuk
Summary: Ronnie spent her whole life either in a box or in a chair or both, until Melanie came back.





	The Wild Hunt

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DragonSteel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonSteel/gifts).



> Thanks so much to my beta, carlyinrome.
> 
> Hope you like this, DragonSteel!

Ronnie spent her whole life either in a box or in a chair or both, until Melanie came back. She doesn’t remember much, between the morning when Melanie didn’t come to lessons and the day that she came to save them. Here’s what she does remember:

Miss Justineau looked at the place where Melanie should have been, the big number four on the floor, and she said something to Sergeant Parks, and he said something back, and then she covered her mouth with her hand and ran out of the room. Sergeant Parks said “fuck’s sake,” and then one of the soldiers came running and said something to him, and then all the soldiers ran away, and all of the children (except Melanie, who didn’t come to lessons that day) stayed in their chairs and waited for Miss to come back. They waited and waited but she didn’t come back, and then people came in, crazy people, not people from Echo. They ran around and around the room and all the children were very afraid. The crazy people seemed like they were looking for something, but their eyes were strange, like they couldn’t really see, and they kept sniffing and making horrible noises, and then they left too. There were lots of noises, screaming and loud noises like BANG BANG BANG and the sound of people running, and then it was quiet except for the sound of Lizzie crying (Ronnie was crying too but she did it quietly so nobody could tell). Maybe some of the others were crying quietly like Ronnie, but Lizzie was really crying, like a silly baby.

“What’s happening?” asked Tom.

“I don’t know,” said Siobhan.

“Those crazy people must have attacked us,” said Ronnie.

“When will they come and get us?” asked Liam. He meant the grown-ups, like Miss Justineau or Doctor Caldwell or Sergeant Parks or the other soldiers.

“They’ll come soon,” said Ronnie. But they didn’t.

The children waited and waited and waited in their chairs and nobody came to get them, and they got so so hungry, and they couldn’t sleep because they hadn’t had their dinner. At first they talked to each other and even tried telling stories and playing games, and tapping on their chairs to send secret messages like they used to tap on their walls in their rooms at night. Melanie had taught them how to do it, but Melanie wasn’t here. She must have gone to the same place Kenny had gone. Tom and Marcia thought Melanie was annoying because she talked all the time and was a know-it-all, and sometimes Ronnie agreed, but she wished Melanie was here now. Melanie always seemed to understand things better than everybody else. It would have been nice if she had been there to explain what was happening.

After a while it was hard to think about stories and games and tapping, because all they could think about was how hungry they were, and then it was hard to think about anything at all.

Ronnie didn’t know how long it was, but after a long long time some more people came in. They smelled really nice, and all the children were so hungry, they tried to get out of their chairs. Marcia tried so hard her chair tipped over. The people shouted and ran away. The next thing she remembers is Melanie.

Melanie came to save them, and she wasn’t dressed in her orange clothes anymore, and she had a lot of other children with her in funny clothes, and she let them out of their chairs and she showed them how to get food, and they all ate and slept in the first time in forever, and then Melanie made them come back and put a lot of things in a bag to take to Miss. Ronnie didn’t want to come back to Echo.

“It’s for Miss,” said Melanie. “Just this once, and after that we don’t have to come back ever.”

So they put a lot of things in a big bag and then they ran and ran and ran. Ronnie had never ever run before, but her body knew how to do it anyway. She ran and jumped and climbed a tree, and they found a place with things you could climb up and swing on and everything, and even the funny children who couldn’t talk joined in.

“We have to get back to Miss now,” said Melanie.

Ronnie liked Miss, but she liked this place better.

“We can come back,” said Melanie. “We have to take these to Miss. They’re presents for her.”

Ronnie had never given anyone a present before. “Okay,” she said.

“We can split it all up,” said Melanie, “and give her one present each!”

Melanie took them to a place where there were lots and lots of people, all just standing there together.

“Those are hungries,” said Melanie. “We’re like them, except the fungus acts as a symbiote in the second generation.”

All the Echo children looked at each other, but they were used to Melanie saying things they didn’t really understand, and it was never a good idea to ask questions, because she just said more things you didn’t understand and it was boring.

Then there weren’t so many of the people anymore, but there was a big tower like in a story, like in Rapunzel.

“Like ivy around an oak,” said Melanie, and nobody understood that either (they knew what ivy was, and what an oak was, but they didn’t know why she said it).

The big tower smelled really good, not like the people who came—it didn’t make her feel hungry—but really good. It made her feel… she didn’t have a word for it, but it just smelled _right_ , like she was _meant_ to be here near the tower, smelling the smell. She liked it a lot.

Melanie took them to where Miss was. She was inside a box, but it was see-through, not like the ones at Echo. It was bigger than the ones in Echo, too, and had lots more things in it. It was close enough to the tower that you could still smell the good smell. Ronnie was happy about that.

Melanie took out two boxes from her big bag and opened them. The boxes said:

M.O.D USE ONLY  
NOT FOR RESALE  
24 HOUR MULTI-CLIMATE RATION

Inside were a lot of pouches in different sizes. Melanie divided them up. She tried to give presents to the new children to give to Miss, but they didn’t understand about presents, so the Echo children gave Miss the presents instead. Ronnie’s present said YORKIE on it.

"You have to leave it outside the airlock," said Melanie. "Don't open the door."

Miss was crying.

“Are you sad, Miss?” asked Ronnie.

“No,” said Miss, “I’m happy to see you. Thank you so much for my presents.” But she was crying and crying, her nose was red and she kept sniffing. Miss Justineau was the only grown-up that Ronnie had ever seen cry.

Melanie was the last of the Echo children to bring Miss Justineau a gift, and then they talked for a long time, but Ronnie couldn’t hear what they said. Melanie had always been Miss Justineau’s favourite just because she was the best at writing stories and she remembered the answers to questions. Ronnie thought it wasn’t really fair, because she was the best at running and Tom was the best at climbing, but they only found that out just now, because none of the teachers at Echo ever let them try. If they’d been allowed to do things like running and climbing at Echo they could have shown Miss Justineau how good they were and maybe then she would have liked them the best, and now Miss Justineau was inside the box so they couldn’t really show her properly.

Melanie said they had to start having lessons again, with the new children as well. It was so annoying, because the new children didn’t know the answers to any questions at all, and they didn’t know how to play any games or anything.

They were good at hunting, though.

This was Ronnie’s favourite part: after lessons, instead of going back to their rooms and eating the same dinners as always, all the children went out hunting, the Echo children and the new children and Melanie, who wasn’t exactly an Echo child anymore but wasn’t one of the new children either—Melanie was something in between.

Melanie told the Echo children what to do, but the new children knew already, and they were the best at it, better than Melanie even, but Ronnie was good at running and Tom was good at climbing so they were very useful as well, Melanie said.

They don’t eat the same dinner every night anymore. They eat all sorts of different things: cats and dogs and rats and rabbits and foxes. Once a month they go on a special hunt that Melanie calls the Wild Hunt, and they catch a deer. It takes a lot longer, but it’s the best. They have to walk far, past some of those people that Melanie called hungries. Sometimes the hungries are crazy like before, if they smell something that’s good to eat, but mostly they just stand there and don’t bother anyone. They make Ronnie sort of sad, but she doesn’t really know why.

They walk and walk, out of the city and into the woods like in fairy tales, and they have to wait and be quiet, but it’s worth it. Deers are the best things to eat, because they’re big enough to share with everyone. All the children help to catch the deer and they all eat together, then they all sleep in the woods all night, and you can see the bright stars through the leaves, and the next day you can run and climb as much as you like and nobody ever ever comes to put you in a chair or in a box.


End file.
